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Background: I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, which I used to call “the capital of Utopia”, because it was the capital of the Soviet Union at that time. I traveled the world extensively and lived abroad most of my adult life. I studied and worked in Europe, U.S., and, most recently, Western Canada, before coming to Fairbanks in Winter 2010. My personal history of displacement, border-crossing, and the need to negotiate cultural differences determined my research interest in globalization, postcolonial theory, and cultural studies.
Education and teaching: After receiving the undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University in 1999, and the M.A. in Gender & Culture Studies from Central European University in Budapest in 2000, I proceeded to complete my Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (2008) at the State University of New York, Buffalo. I taught from 2000-2004 at the State University of New York, Buffalo and from 2004-2008 at the University of Manitoba, Canada before moving to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in Winter 2010.
